Manchester achieved city status in 1853. The Manchester Ship Canal opened in 1894, creating the Port of Manchester and linking the city to sea, 36 miles (58 km) to the west. Its fortunes declined after the Second World War, owing to deindustrialisation. The city centre was devastated in a bombing in 1996, but it led to extensive investment and regeneration that has since helped it turn into a thriving 'reborn' modern city.[10]

Manchester is mentioned as having a market in 1282.[23] Around the 14th century, Manchester received an influx of Flemish weavers, sometimes credited as the foundation of the region's textile industry.[24] Manchester became an important centre for the manufacture and trade of woollens and linen, and by about 1540, had expanded to become, in John Leland's words, "The fairest, best builded, quickest, and most populous town of all Lancashire."[18] The cathedral and Chetham's buildings are the only significant survivors of Leland's Manchester.[19]

During the English Civil War Manchester strongly favoured the Parliamentary interest. Although not long-lasting, Cromwell granted it the right to elect its own MP. Charles Worsley, who sat for the city for only a year, was later appointed Major General for Lancashire, Cheshire and Staffordshire during the Rule of the Major Generals. He was a diligent puritan, turning out ale houses and banning the celebration of Christmas; he died in 1656.[25]

Significant quantities of cotton began to be used after about 1600, firstly in linen/cotton fustians, but by around 1750 pure cotton fabrics were being produced and cotton had overtaken wool in importance.[18] The Irwell and Mersey were made navigable by 1736, opening a route from Manchester to the sea docks on the Mersey. The Bridgewater Canal, Britain's first wholly artificial waterway, was opened in 1761, bringing coal from mines at Worsley to central Manchester. The canal was extended to the Mersey at Runcorn by 1776. The combination of competition and improved efficiency halved the cost of coal and halved the transport cost of raw cotton.[18][21] Manchester became the dominant marketplace for textiles produced in the surrounding towns.[18] A commodities exchange, opened in 1729,[19] and numerous large warehouses, aided commerce. In 1780, Richard Arkwright began construction of Manchester's first cotton mill.[19][21] In the early 1800s, John Dalton formulated his atomic theory in Manchester.

Manchester's history is concerned with textile manufacture during the Industrial Revolution. The great majority of cotton spinning took place in the towns of south Lancashire and north Cheshire, and Manchester was for a time the most productive centre of cotton processing,[26] and later the world's largest marketplace for cotton goods.[18][27] Manchester was dubbed "Cottonopolis" and "Warehouse City" during the Victorian era.[26] In Australia, New Zealand and South Africa, the term "manchester" is still used for household linen: sheets, pillow cases, towels, etc.[28] The industrial revolution brought about huge change in Manchester and was key to the increase in Manchester's population.

Manchester began expanding "at an astonishing rate" around the turn of the 19th century as people flocked to the city for work from Scotland, Wales, Ireland and other areas of England as part of a process of unplanned urbanisation brought on by the Industrial Revolution.[29][30][31] It developed a wide range of industries, so that by 1835 "Manchester was without challenge the first and greatest industrial city in the world."[27] Engineering firms initially made machines for the cotton trade, but diversified into general manufacture. Similarly, the chemical industry started by producing bleaches and dyes, but expanded into other areas. Commerce was supported by financial service industries such as banking and insurance.

View from Kersal Moor towards Manchester by Thomas Pether, circa 1820, then still a rural landscape.

Trade, and feeding the growing population, required a large transport and distribution infrastructure: the canal system was extended, and Manchester became one end of the world's first intercity passenger railway—the Liverpool and Manchester Railway. Competition between the various forms of transport kept costs down.[18] In 1878 the GPO (the forerunner of British Telecom) provided its first telephones to a firm in Manchester.[32]

The Manchester Ship Canal was built between 1888 and 1894, in some sections by canalisation of the Rivers Irwell and Mersey, running 36 miles (58 km)[33] from Salford to Eastham Locks on the tidal Mersey. This enabled oceangoing ships to sail right into the Port of Manchester. On the canal's banks, just outside the borough, the world's first industrial estate was created at Trafford Park.[18] Large quantities of machinery, including cotton processing plant, were exported around the world.

A centre of capitalism, Manchester was once the scene of bread and labour riots, as well as calls for greater political recognition by the city's working and non-titled classes. One such gathering ended with the Peterloo Massacre of 16 August 1819. The economic school of Manchester capitalism developed there, and Manchester was the centre of the Anti-Corn Law League from 1838 onward.

At that time, it seemed a place in which anything could happen—new industrial processes, new ways of thinking (the Manchester School, promoting free trade and laissez-faire), new classes or groups in society, new religious sects, and new forms of labour organisation. It attracted educated visitors from all parts of Britain and Europe. A saying capturing this sense of innovation survives today: "What Manchester does today, the rest of the world does tomorrow."[36] Manchester's golden age was perhaps the last quarter of the 19th century. Many of the great public buildings (including Manchester Town Hall) date from then. The city's cosmopolitan atmosphere contributed to a vibrant culture, which included the Hallé Orchestra. In 1889, when county councils were created in England, the municipal borough became a county borough with even greater autonomy.

Although the Industrial Revolution brought wealth to the city, it also brought poverty and squalor to a large part of the population. Historian Simon Schama noted that "Manchester was the very best and the very worst taken to terrifying extremes, a new kind of city in the world; the chimneys of industrial suburbs greeting you with columns of smoke". An American visitor taken to Manchester's blackspots saw "wretched, defrauded, oppressed, crushed human nature, lying and bleeding fragments".[37]

The number of cotton mills in Manchester itself reached a peak of 108 in 1853.[26] Thereafter the number began to decline and Manchester was surpassed as the largest centre of cotton spinning by Bolton in the 1850s and Oldham in the 1860s.[26] However, this period of decline coincided with the rise of city as the financial centre of the region.[26] Manchester continued to process cotton, and in 1913, 65% of the world's cotton was processed in the area.[18] The First World War interrupted access to the export markets. Cotton processing in other parts of the world increased, often on machines produced in Manchester. Manchester suffered greatly from the Great Depression and the underlying structural changes that began to supplant the old industries, including textile manufacture.

Cotton processing and trading continued to fall in peacetime, and the exchange closed in 1968.[18] By 1963 the port of Manchester was the UK's third largest,[40] and employed over 3,000 men, but the canal was unable to handle the increasingly large container ships. Traffic declined, and the port closed in 1982.[41] Heavy industry suffered a downturn from the 1960s and was greatly reduced under the economic policies followed by Margaret Thatcher's government after 1979. Manchester lost 150,000 jobs in manufacturing between 1961 and 1983.[18]

Corporation Street after the Manchester bombing on 15 June 1996. There were no fatalities, but it was one of the most expensive man-made disasters.[42] A large rebuilding project of Manchester ensued.

Manchester has a history of attacks attributed to Irish Republicans, including the Manchester Martyrs of 1867, arson in 1920, a series of explosions in 1939, and two bombs in 1992. On Saturday 15 June 1996, the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) carried out the 1996 Manchester bombing, the detonation of a large bomb next to a department store in the city centre. The largest to be detonated on British soil, the bomb injured over 200 people, heavily damaged nearby buildings, and broke windows 1⁄2 mile (800 m) away. The cost of the immediate damage was initially estimated at £50 million, but this was quickly revised upwards.[44] The final insurance payout was over £400 million; many affected businesses never recovered from the loss of trade.[45]

Large sections of the city dating from the 1960s have been either demolished and re-developed or modernised with the use of glass and steel. Old mills have been converted into modern apartments, Hulme has undergone extensive regeneration programmes, and million-pound lofthouse apartments have since been developed. The 169-metre tall, 47-storey Beetham Tower, completed in 2006, is the tallest building in the UK outside London and when finished was the highest residential accommodation in Europe.[47] In January 2007, the independent Casino Advisory Panel awarded Manchester a licence to build the only supercasino in the UK,[48] however plans were officially abandoned in February 2008.[49]

Since around the turn of the 21st century, Manchester has been regarded by sections of the international press,[50] British public,[51] and government ministers[52] as being the second city of the United Kingdom.[53] The BBC reports that redevelopment of recent years has heightened claims that Manchester is the second city of the UK.[54] Manchester and Birmingham have traditionally competed as frontrunners for this unofficial title.[54]

The town of Manchester was granted a charter by Thomas Grelley in 1301, but lost its borough status in a court case of 1359. Until the 19th century local government was largely in the hands of manorial courts, the last of which was dissolved in 1846.[56]

In November 2014 it was announced that Greater Manchester would receive a new directly elected Mayor. The Mayor would have fiscal control over health, transport, housing and police in the area.[58] The move was dubbed "Devo Manc", a play on the phrase Devo Max.[59]

At 53°28′0″N2°14′0″W﻿ / ﻿53.46667°N 2.23333°W﻿ / 53.46667; -2.23333, 160 miles (260 km) northwest of London, Manchester lies in a bowl-shaped land area bordered to the north and east by the Pennines, a mountain chain that runs the length of northern England, and to the south by the Cheshire Plain. Manchester is 35.0 miles (56.3 km) north-east of Liverpool and 35.0 miles (56.3 km) north-west of Sheffield, making the city the halfway point between the two. The city centre is on the east bank of the River Irwell, near its confluences with the Rivers Medlock and Irk, and is relatively low-lying, being between 35 to 42 metres (115 to 138 feet) above sea level.[60] The River Mersey flows through the south of Manchester. Much of the inner city, especially in the south, is flat, offering extensive views from many highrise buildings in the city of the foothills and moors of the Pennines, which can often be capped with snow in the winter months. Manchester's geographic features were highly influential in its early development as the world's first industrial city. These features are its climate, its proximity to a seaport at Liverpool, the availability of water power from its rivers, and its nearby coal reserves.[61]

The name Manchester, though officially applied only to the metropolitan district within Greater Manchester, has been applied to other, wider divisions of land, particularly across much of the Greater Manchester county and urban area. The "Manchester City Zone", "Manchester post town" and the "Manchester Congestion Charge" are all examples of this.

Manchester experiences a temperateOceanic climate, like much of the British Isles, with mild summers and cool winters. Summer daytime temperatures regularly top 20 Celsius, typically reaching 25 Celsius on sunny days throughout July and August in particular. In more recent years, temperatures now reach over 30 Celsius on occasions. In Winter, temperatures rarely dip below freezing anymore. There is regular but generally light precipitation throughout the year. The city's average annual rainfall is 806.6 millimetres (31.76 in)[63] compared to the UK average of 1,125.0 millimetres (44.29 in),[64] and its mean rain days are 140.4 per annum,[63] compared to the UK average of 154.4.[64] Manchester however has a relatively high humidity level and this, along with the abundant supply of soft water, was one of the factors that led to the localisation of the textile industry in the area.[65] Snowfalls are not common in the city, due to the urban warming effect. However, the Pennine and Rossendale Forest hills that surround the city to its east and north receive more snow and roads leading out of the city can be closed due to snow.[66] notably the A62 road via Oldham and Standedge, the A57 (Snake Pass) towards Sheffield,[67] and the M62 over Saddleworth Moor.

The 2012 Mid-Year Estimate for the population of Manchester was 510,700. This was an increase of 7,900, or 1.6%, since the 2011 MYE. Since 2001, the population has grown by 87,900, or 20.8%. Manchester was the third fastest-growing of the areas in the 2011 census.[72] The city experienced the greatest percentage population growth outside London, with an increase of 19% to over 500,000.[73] Manchester's population is projected to reach 532,200 by 2021, an increase of 5.8% from 2011. This represents a slower rate of growth than the previous decade.[72]

The Greater Manchester Built-up Area had a population of 2,553,400 (2011 est.,). An estimated 2,702,200 people live in Greater Manchester (2012 est.,). 6,547,000 people live within 30 miles (50 km) of Manchester (2012 est.,) and 11,694,000 within 50 miles (80 km) (2012 est.,).[72]

Between the beginning of July 2011 and end of June 2012 (Mid-Year Estimate date), births exceeded deaths by 4,800. Migration (internal and international) and other changes accounted for a net increase of 3,100 people between July 2011 and June 2012. Compared to Greater Manchester and England, Manchester has a younger population, with a particularly large 20–35 age group.[72]

Since the 2001 census, the proportion of Christians in Manchester has decreased by 22% from 62.4% to 48.7%. The proportion of people with no religious affiliation increased by 58.1% from 16% to 25.3%, whilst the proportion of Muslims increased by 73.6% from 9.1% to 15.8%. The size of the Jewish population in Greater Manchester is the largest in Britain outside London.[74]

The population of Manchester shown with other boroughs in the Greater Manchester county from 1801 to 2011.

Manchester has a disproportionately high number of gay and lesbian people.[75] Of all households in Manchester, 0.23% were Same-Sex Civil Partnership couple households, compared to the English national average of 0.16% in 2011.[76]

Kidd identifies Moss Side, Longsight, Cheetham Hill, Rusholme, as centres of population for ethnic minorities.[18] Manchester's Irish Festival, including a St Patrick's Day parade, is one of Europe's largest.[79] There is also a well-established Chinatown in the city with a substantial number of oriental restaurants and Chinese supermarkets. The area also attracts large numbers of Chinese students to the city who, in attending the local universities,[80] contribute to Manchester having the third-largest Chinese population in Europe.[81][82]

The Manchester Larger Urban Zone, a Eurostat measure of the functional city-region approximated to local government districts, has a population of 2,539,100 in 2004.[83] In addition to Manchester itself, the LUZ includes the remainder of the county of Greater Manchester.[84] The Manchester LUZ is the second largest within the United Kingdom, behind that of London.

As the UK economy continues to recover from the downturn experienced in 2008–10, Manchester compares favourably to other geographies according to the latest figures. In 2012 it is shown the strongest annual growth in business stock (5%) of all the Core Cities.[88] The city experienced a relatively sharp increase in the number of business deaths, the largest increase of all the Core Cities, however this was offset by strong growth in new businesses which resulted in a strong net growth.

Manchester's civic leadership has a reputation for business acumen.[89] It owns two of the country's four busiest airports and uses its earnings to fund local projects.[90] Meanwhile, KPMG's competitive alternative report found that in 2012 Manchester had the 9th lowest tax cost of any industrialised city in the world,[91] and fiscal devolution has come earlier to Manchester than to any other British city: it can keep half the extra taxes it gets from transport investment.[89]

KPMG's competitive alternative report also found that Manchester was Europe's most affordable city featured, ranking slightly better than Dutch cities, Rotterdam and Amsterdam, who all have a cost of living index less than 95.[91]

Manchester is a city of contrast, where some of the country's most deprived and most affluent neighbourhoods can be found.[92][93] According to the 2010 Indices of Multiple Deprivation Manchester is the 4th most deprived local council in the England.[94] Unemployment throughout 2012–13 averaged 11.9%, which was above the national average, but lower than some of the country's other comparable large cities.[95] On the other hand, Greater Manchester is home to more multi-millionaires than anywhere outside London, with the City of Manchester taking up most of the tally.[96] In 2013 Manchester was ranked 6th in the UK for quality of life, according to a rating of the UK's 12 largest cities.[97]

Women fare better in Manchester than the rest of the country in terms of equal pay to men. The per hours worked gender pay gap is 3.3%, in contrast to 11.1% for Great Britain.[98] 37% of the working-age population in Manchester have degree level qualifications in contrast to the average of 33% across other Core Cities,[98] although schools under-perform slightly when compared to the national average.[99]

Manchester has the largest UK office market outside London according to GVA Grimley with a quarterly office uptake (averaged over 2010–14) of approximately 250,000 square ft – equivalent to the quarterly office uptake of Leeds, Liverpool and Newcastle combined and 90,000 square feet more than the nearest rival Birmingham.[100] The strong office market in Manchester has been partly attributed to 'Northshoring', (from offshoring) which entails the relocation or alternative creation of jobs away from the overheated South to areas where office space is possibly cheaper and workforce market may not be as saturated.[101]

Neo-baroque Lancaster House , Manchester is known for opulent warehouses from the city's textile trade.

Manchester's buildings display a variety of architectural styles, ranging from Victorian to contemporary architecture. The widespread use of red brick characterises the city, much of the architecture of which harks back to its days as a global centre for the cotton trade.[21] Just outside the immediate city centre is a large number of former cotton mills, some of which have been left virtually untouched since their closure while many have been redeveloped into apartment buildings and office space. Manchester Town Hall, in Albert Square, was built in the Gothic revival style and is considered to be one of the most important Victorian buildings in England.[102]

Manchester also has a number of skyscrapers built during the 1960s and 1970s, the tallest of which was the CIS Tower located near Manchester Victoria station until the Beetham Tower was completed in 2006; it is an example of the new surge in high-rise building and includes a Hilton hotel, a restaurant, and apartments. It remains the tallest building outside London and has been described as the United Kingdom's only true skyscraper outside the capital.[103]The Green Building, opposite Oxford Road station, is a pioneering eco-friendly housing project, while the recently completed One Angel Square, is one of the most sustainable large buildings in the world.[104] The award-winning Heaton Park in the north of the city borough is one of the largest municipal parks in Europe, covering 610 acres (250 ha) of parkland.[105] The city has 135 parks, gardens, and open spaces.[106]

Manchester became the first city in the UK to acquire a modern light rail tram system when the Manchester Metrolink opened in 1992. 25 million passenger journeys were made on the system in 2012/13.[115] The present system mostly runs on former commuter rail lines converted for light rail use, and crosses the city centre via on-street tram lines.[116] The 45.6 mi (73.4 km)[117]-network consists of six lines with 69 stations (including five on-street tram stops in the centre).[118] An expansion programme is underway[119] which will create four new lines to add to the current three and will be at least 99 stops, 62 more than in 2010. Manchester city centre is also serviced by over a dozen heavy and light rail-based park and ride sites.[120]

Manchester, Northern England and North Wales are served by Manchester Airport. The airport is the third busiest in the United Kingdom and the largest outside the London region. Airline services exist to many destinations in Europe, North America, the Caribbean, Africa, the Middle East and Asia (with more destinations from Manchester than any other airport in Britain).[126] A second runway was opened in 2001 and there have been continued terminal improvements. The airport has the highest rating available: "Category 10", encompassing an elite group of airports which are able to handle "Code F" aircraft including the Airbus A380 and Boeing 747-8.[127] From September 2010 the airport became one of only 17 airports in the world and the only UK airport other than Heathrow Airport to operate the Airbus A380.[128]

An extensive canal network, including the Manchester Ship Canal, was built to carry freight from the Industrial Revolution onward; the canals are still maintained, though now largely repurposed to leisure use.[131] In 2012, plans were approved to introduce a water taxi service between Manchester city centre and MediaCityUK at Salford Quays.[132]

Brass band music, a tradition in the north of England, is an important part of Manchester's musical heritage;[142] some of the UK's leading bands, such as the CWS Manchester Band and the Fairey Band, are from Manchester and surrounding areas, and the Whit Friday brass band contest takes place annually in the neighbouring areas of Saddleworth and Tameside.

Since 2007 the city has hosted the Manchester International Festival, a biennial international arts festival with a specific focus on original new work, which has included major new commissions by artists including Bjork. In ChancellorGeorge Osborne's 2014 autumn statement he announced a £78 million grant to fund a new "large-scale, ultra-flexible arts space" for the city.[145] Subsequently, the council stated that they had managed to secure a further £32 million from "a variety of sources",[146] The £110 million venue was confirmed in July 2016.[147]:13–14 The theatre, to be called The Factory, after Manchester's Factory Records, will provide a permanent home for the Manchester International Festival,[145] it is due to open at the end of 2019.[147]:15

The works of Stretford-born painter L. S. Lowry, known for his "matchstick" paintings of industrial Manchester and Salford, can be seen in both the city and Whitworth Manchester galleries, and at the Lowry art centre in Salford Quays (in the neighbouring borough of Salford) devotes a large permanent exhibition to his works.[156]

Canal Street, one of Manchester's liveliest nightspots, part of the city's gay village

The night-time economy of Manchester has expanded significantly since about 1993, with investment from breweries in bars, public houses and clubs, along with active support from the local authorities.[165] The more than 500 licensed premises[166] in the city centre have a capacity to deal with more than 250,000 visitors,[167] with 110–130,000 people visiting on a typical weekend night.[166] The night-time economy has a value of about £100 million[168] and supports 12,000 jobs.[166]

The Madchester scene of the 1980s, from which groups including New Order, The Smiths, The Stone Roses, the Happy Mondays, Inspiral Carpets, 808 State, James and The Charlatans emerged, was based on clubs such as the world-famous The Haçienda.[169] The period was the subject of the film 24 Hour Party People. Many of the big clubs suffered problems with organised crime at that time; Haslam describes one where staff were so completely intimidated that free admission and drinks were demanded (and given) and drugs were openly dealt.[169] Following a series of drug-related violent incidents, The Hacienda closed in 1998. In 1988, Manchester was often referred to as Madchester for its rave scene. Owned by Tony Wilson's Factory Records, it was given the catalogue number FAC51 and official club name, FAC51 The Hacienda. Known for developing many talented 80s influential acts, it also influenced the graphic design industry via Factory artists such as Peter Saville (PSA), Octavo (8vo), Central Design Station, etc. The memorabilia from this club holds a high value among collectors and fans of these artists and the club. Peter Saville was most notable for his minimalistic influence that still affects contemporary graphic design everywhere.

Public houses in the Canal Street area have had a gay clientele since at least 1940,[165] and now form the centre of Manchester's gay community. Since the opening of new bars and clubs, the area attracts 20,000 visitors each weekend[165] and has hosted a popular festival, Manchester Pride, each August since 2003.[170]

The three Universities are grouped around Oxford Road on the southern side of the city centre, which forms Europe's largest urban higher education precinct.[174] Together they have a combined population of 76,025 students in higher education as of 2015,[175] although almost 6,000 of them were based at Manchester Metropolitan University's campuses at Crewe and Alsager in Cheshire.[176]

In 2010, the Manchester Local Education Authority was ranked last out of Greater Manchester's ten LEAs – and 147th out of 150 in the country LEAs – based on the percentage of pupils attaining at least five A*-C grades at General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE) including maths and English (38.6% compared with the national average of 50.7%). The LEA also had the highest occurrence of absences, with 11.11% of "half-day sessions missed by pupils", above the national average of 5.8%.[179][180] Of the schools in the LEA with 30 or more pupils, four had 90% or more pupils achieving at least five A*–C grades at GCSE including maths and English: (Manchester High School for Girls, St Bede's College, Manchester Islamic High School for Girls, and The King David High School) while three managed 25% or below (Plant Hill Arts College, North Manchester High School for Boys, Brookway High School and Sports College).[181]

The ITV franchisee Granada Television is partially headquartered in the old Granada Studios site on Quay Street and the new location at MediaCityUK[189] as part of the initial phase of its migration to Salford Quays.[190] It produces Coronation Street,[191] local news and programmes for North West England. Although its influence has waned Granada had been described as 'the best commercial television company in the world'.[192][193]

Manchester was one of the BBC's three main centres in England.[190] Programmes including Mastermind,[194] and Real Story,[195] were made at New Broadcasting House. The Cutting It series set in the city's Northern Quarter and The Street were set in Manchester[196] as was Life on Mars. The first edition of Top of the Pops was broadcast from a studio in Rusholme on New Year's Day 1964.[197] Manchester was the regional base for BBC One North West Region programmes before it relocated to MediaCityUK in nearby Salford Quays.[198][199] The Manchester television channel, Channel M, owned by the Guardian Media Group operated from 2000 but closed in 2012.[190][200] Manchester is also covered by two internet television channels: Quays News and Manchester.tv. The city will also have a new terrestrial channel from January 2014 when YourTV Manchester, who won the OFCOM licence bid in February 2013 begins its first broadcast but in 2015 when That's Manchester took over to air on 31 May and launched on the freeview channel 8 service slot before moving to channel 7 in April 2016.

The Guardian newspaper was founded in 1821 as The Manchester Guardian. Its head office is still in the city, though many of its management functions were moved to London in 1964.[18] Its sister publication, the Manchester Evening News, has the largest circulation of a UK regional evening newspaper. It is free in the city centre on Thursdays and Fridays, but paid for in the suburbs. Despite its title, it is available all day.[204] The Metro North West is available free at Metrolink stops, rail stations and other busy locations. The MEN group distributes several local weekly free papers.[205] For many years most of the national newspapers had offices in Manchester: The Daily Telegraph, Daily Express, Daily Mail, The Daily Mirror, The Sun. Only The Daily Sport remains based in Manchester. At its height, 1,500 journalists were employed, though in the 1980s office closures began and today the "second Fleet Street" is no more.[206] An attempt to launch a Northern daily newspaper, the North West Times, employing journalists made redundant by other titles, closed in 1988.[207] Another attempt was made with the North West Enquirer, which hoped to provide a true "regional" newspaper for the North West, much in the same vein as the Yorkshire Post does for Yorkshire or The Northern Echo does for the North East; it folded in October 2006.[207]

Manchester has formal twinning arrangements (or "friendship agreements") with several places.[208][209] In addition, the British Council maintains a metropolitan centre in Manchester.[210] Although not an official twin city, Tampere, Finland is known as "the Manchester of Finland" – or "Manse" for short. Similarly, Osaka is nicknamed as "The Manchester of Japan", Joinville, Brazil is known as "the Manchester of Santa Catarina (state)". Being centres of textile industries Ahmedabad is known as "the Manchester of India"[211][212] and Coimbatore is known as "the Manchester of South India".[213][214]

Manchester is home to the largest group of consuls in the UK outside London. The expansion of international trade links during the Industrial Revolution led to the introduction of the first consuls in the 1820s and since then over 800, from all parts of the world, have been based in Manchester. Manchester hosts consular services for most of the north of England.[216]

^"Europe's biggest gay festival to be held in UK". The Guardian. M.E.N media. 11 February 2003.Unknown parameter |url. previously from 1991 it was the mardi gras weekend mostly organised by the village charity a fundraiser for organisations supporting people with hiv= ignored (help);|access-date= requires |url= (help)

^Little, Daran (1995). The Coronation Street Story. London: Boxtree. p. 6. ISBN1-85283-464-1. Coronation Street is without doubt the most successful television programme in the world. ... what is today the world's longest running drama serial.

^"Obituary – David Plowright". The Independent. 29 August 2006. Retrieved 4 February 2012. As he himself liked to quote, not for nothing had Granada been dubbed the best commercial television company in the world.